Psychopathy is associated with a variety of negative attitudes and behaviours towards women; however, the mechanisms that underlie these associations have yet to be fully examined. The current work examined dehumanization, a social-psychological construct, as a potential mechanism facilitating the association between subclinical psychopathy and negative attitudes towards women. Two online studies with all-male samples were conducted to examine whether dehumanization helps to explain the association between psychopathy and sexist and violent attitudes towards women. In Study 1 (n = 514), path analyses indicated that psychopathy was indirectly related to sexist and violent attitudes towards women through dehumanization. Study 2 (n = 265) replicated the findings of Study 1 regarding sexism. It also included a date rape analogue measure of violent attitudes and was able to expand on the findings of Study 1, though only for the interpersonal and affective components of psychopathy. These results may suggest that individuals high in psychopathic traits see women as sub-human, this dehumanizing appraisal may be facilitating attitudes and behaviours that are consistent with the idea that women are less than human and deserve to be treated as such. Our results suggest that dehumanization may be an important mechanism for understanding, and potentially mitigating, the association between psychopathy and negative attitudes towards women.

Introduction

Theodor (Ted) Bundy, the prolific serial killer, often referred to his female victims as “cargo” or “damaged goods” (Simon, 1999, p.23). He discussed being driven to possess women as one would be driven to “possess a potted plant, a painting, or a Porsche” (Bearak, 1989, p.2). This dehumanizing attitude culminated in the murder, rape, and mutilation of as many as 50 female victims (Bearak, 1989). Dr. Hervey Cleckley, a seminal psychopathy researcher, considered Bundy to be a self-absorbed psychopath (Ramsland, 2013). Though this example is anecdotal, it could suggest that dehumanizing attitudes may help to explain how psychopaths treat women. Consequently, we were interested in examining the role dehumanization plays in the association between psychopathy and negative attitudes towards women. The current work was focused on replicating previous findings which suggested that psychopathy is positively related to negative and violent attitudes towards women, and then determining if dehumanization may be an explanatory pathway which connects psychopathy to these attitudes (Study 1). The current work then examined if these findings were evident when examining behaviour, rather than self-reported attitudes (Study 2).